Best Laid Plans
by MissFuneralSong
Summary: Ianto has become very much infatuated with T3's newest recruit, Jenny, and so Martha, Gwen and Mickey decide to play matchmaker - right under the nose of a slightly-jealous Jack. JennyIanto, fluffy and slightly crackish.
1. Chapter One

Yes, I know I really should be continuing my more serious Torchwood fic instead of starting something else, but I'm in a fluffy, cracky mood right now, so I present to you a fluffy and slightly cracky fic centering around my favourite ship of the moment, Jenny/Ianto - or as I like to call it, _Jento_. Enjoy!

* * *

Best Laid Plans

Chapter One

It's been seven days since Jenny came to work for Torchwood Three, and already they all get along with her swimmingly. The identity of her father was revealed on the first day, after meeting Martha and having a lovely bit of a reminisce, and the information has made Jack back _right _off; normally he'd go for anything - man, woman or alien - as long as it looks good, and Jenny does look _fantastic_, but Jack loves the Doctor. He's not about to go there.

Ianto, on the other hand, has seriously been considering going there. A week isn't a long time really, but it's long enough for him to have noticed her, _really _noticed her. Jenny's stunningly beautiful, but that's not all; she's also adorably enthusiastic, endearingly naive (Jack says she gets these traits from her father) and she laughs at every single one of Ianto's jokes like they're the funniest things she's ever heard. He's rather enamoured with her, and goes out of his way to make sure he hands Jenny her coffee before anyone else, or opens doors for her, or sits next to her in the conference room. He feels a bit like a teenager with a crush.

Jack's actually feeling a little jealous about all this, but not too much; he lets it continue, and sometimes he actually smiles to himself when he sees Ianto and Jenny laughing together. Because Jack loves the Doctor. And he knows that one day, Ianto is going to find out. It's better that Ianto has someone else that he truly cares about, when that time comes.

And Jenny is quite oblivious to the whole affair. She likes Ianto a lot, but she's never been in a situation like this and hasn't noticed any of it, the looks he gives her or the special treatment in small ways, or how he always tries to be close to her. She just thinks of him as a good man, and a good friend.

Gwen, Martha and Mickey are impartial observers of all of this - all have noticed Ianto's infatuation and Jenny's naivety - and now the three of them are sharing a pizza and having a few drinks back at Gwen's place after a long day at work, discussing it. Mickey is a bit out of his comfort zone amidst all this gossiping and scheming, but soon becomes accustomed to it and begins to rather enjoy himself. Rhys opts to stay right out of it.

"Something's got to happen either way," Gwen is saying, around a mouthful of mushrooms and cheese. "We can't let them keep going on like this, or Ianto's just going to get hurt."

"Yeah," agrees Martha, "in a big way. Better for Jenny to realise, you know? Accept him or reject him _now_, rather than him getting too attached to her."

Mickey swallows a mouthful of beer. "Yeah, but Jenny doesn't know. What do we do, just come right out and tell her?"

The two women look at him like he's an idiot, and Mickey sheepishly takes a bite of his pizza in an attempt to cover his embarrassment.

"We've got to..." Gwen thinks for a moment, gesturing vaguely with one hand while clutching her drink with the other. "Oh, I dunno, but we've got to make her realise somehow. Maybe we should throw a party or something."

"But Jack," Martha cuts in, and they understand this to mean: _He'll be watching them_.

They toss around a few other ideas, each as shockingly dumb and impractical as the last, when Rhys pops his head in out of the kitchen, where he'd been busy making a tea and sneaking a read of a tabloid magazine, and suggests, "Why don't you invite them out for lunch, and cancel at the last second? Leaves the two of 'em alone, and Jack never has to know."

The three stare at Rhys for several moments, dumbfounded; this plan is so _obvious_ and they're each wondering why in the world _they _didn't think of it. Rhys tires of their lack of reaction, shrugs and returns to his tea and celebrities, entirely unconcerned.

--

The next morning, at work - when Jack and Gwen have gone off to question a distraught family member regarding the Weevil that attacked their nephew - Martha, Mickey, Jenny and Ianto are left at the Hub with some paperwork and a great deal of free time. Martha is watching Jenny and Ianto, who are standing over by the coffee maker and discussing some book or other. Mickey, however, is disinterestedly eating a curry he'd picked up on the way there. Annoyed, Martha shoves him gently and jerks her head in the direction of the other two, and Mickey gives her an "oh _yeah_" look, suddenly paying rapt attention.

"You or me?" he mouths.

Martha, fairly certain that Mickey will stuff it up either by stumbling over his words or just generally being a terrible actor, replies, "Me," and gets deftly up off her swivel-chair, crossing to where her targets are standing.

"Hi, guys!" she greets them, enthusiastically, and both smile at her. Ianto's smile is notably less warm and inviting than Jenny's. He looks as though Martha has just trodden on his sandcastle.

"Hi Martha," says Jenny happily, not noticing the silent despair in Ianto's eyes at this distraction. "What's up?"

Martha's smile widens terrifyingly; she hadn't previously taken into account that she might be just as bad an actor as Mickey, and she's currently regretting her lack of foresight. "Oh, well, me and Mickey were gonna go out for lunch later, grab a bite together, and we were wondering if you guys would want to come too?"

The expression Ianto bears now is one beyond hopeless; if he wasn't afraid to do so in front of Jenny, he would bury his head in his hands exasperatedly, or shoot a death-glare at Martha. Or both. Jenny doesn't see this, however, since she's too busy looking delighted at the proposition. She claps her hands together once and says, "Oh, that sounds excellent! I'd love to!" then whips round to face Ianto, ponytail nearly smacking him in the face. "What about you, Ianto? D'you want to come?"

At this moment, Ianto would rather dig his own eyeballs out with a spork than go anywhere with _Martha and Mickey_, but Jenny just looks so pleased to have been invited that he can't possibly say no to her. He manages a smile, but only because the one Jenny is giving him is particularly beautiful. "Yeah, all right," he says quietly and, to his utter delight, she's so happy that she throws her arms round his shoulders in a tight hug. Ianto feels his face getting quite flushed and hopes Martha doesn't notice - and _prays _that Jenny doesn't - and places a tentative hand on her back before she pulls away to hug Martha as well.

Jenny smells of tea and ice cream, with a faint whiff of leather that makes him feel a bit flustered. He files these scents away in his mind, so as to always remember them.

"Great!" says Martha when the embrace is over. "Well I've got some paperwork to be getting on with, but yeah, we'll see you guys at lunch!" With that, she walks off, back to where Mickey sits. He's laughing into his coffee at her awful performance and she smacks him on the arm playfully, whispering, "Well, I'd like to see you do better." They both grin in a goofy, childish way at the success of their plan - they have naturally chosen to deny Rhys's involvement - and get back to work, eagerly awaiting lunchtime.

_To be continued._


	2. Chapter Two

Best Laid Plans

Chapter Two

The second the clock strikes noon, Jenny just about leaps from her chair, gallops to the coffee machine where Ianto is making himself a cup, grabs him by the hand and tows him to the autopsy area. Martha is there, cataloguing and generally making herself seem a lot busier than she is, and she looks up as the two arrive. Jenny hangs over the railing, arms swinging lazily, beaming at the woman, and Martha gives her an apologetic smile back. Or, what she thinks is an apologetic smile; it turns out to be more of an exaggerated, pained grimace.

"Lunchtime already?" Martha asks, and the blonde girl nods vigorously. "Um, I'm really sorry, Jenny, but I can't. I'm way too swamped."

Jenny's face falls, and it's a good thing Ianto's standing behind her and can't see this, or else he'd be feeling a strong urge to throw something at Martha. "So we can't go?" Jenny asks sadly; she loves the feeling of having friends, of being included, and the idea of going out to lunch with a group of them gives her as warm and fuzzy a feeling as she's ever experienced. In this respect, she's very much like a puppy (and, Jack would say, very much like her dad).

"Oh, you guys can still go out," Martha says hurriedly, raising her hands placatingly. "I'll just come next time, yeah?" Jenny brightens a little but still looks rather crestfallen, so Martha adds, "Sorry, Jenny. I'll make it up to you tomorrow, I promise."

"Yeah, all right." Jenny smiles and grabs Ianto's hand again - he hopes she can't hear his heart pounding when she does so - and bounds off to find Mickey, who's over at his computer, typing boredly.

"Ready to go, Mickety Mick Mickey?" she asks excitedly, and receives an odd look from him following the nickname. This quickly dissolves into the same expression Martha bore, and Ianto's eyebrows shoot up in suspicion.

"Sorry, Jen," Mickey says. "Lot o' work to do, looks like I'm gonna have to skip lunch today. And I'm bloody starving too. Ah well."

Jenny frowns, brow knitting in slightly hurt puzzlement. She whips round to face Ianto. "Well..._you're _still coming, aren't you, Ianto?"

Ianto hasn't been paying much attention in the past few seconds, as he's too busy glowing with happiness inside. No Mickey and no Martha. That means just him and Jenny. Jack and Gwen are still off chasing down that Weevil, so just _him_ and _Jenny_. Ianto doublechecks this in his mind over and over again, making sure he hasn't forgotten to factor someone else in - the pterodactyl, perhaps? - but is snapped out of it when Jenny asks her question. He gives her a smile, his first _real _one since before that morning's trodden-on-sandcastle incident. "Yeah. Yeah, of course I am."

--

And so here they are, sitting in an ice cream parlor on rickety metal chairs, the establishment's air conditioning only serving to melt their ice creams faster. Ianto had asked Jenny where she wanted to go, and she confessed that she'd never tried ice cream before, so he immediately led her here, and she's now contentedly licking her scoop of mint chocolate chip as Ianto nurses his cappucino-flavoured ice cream and watches her. She seems not entirely sure how to handle an ice cream cone, and little melted streams of froth are causing her fingers to become sticky. Rather than be annoyed by this, however, Jenny's smile has only grown wider. She's absolutely delighted by most everything that happens, and Ianto can't help but wonder how in the _hell_ she can stay so happy in a world full of such misery.

This, he realises, is one of the reasons he was drawn to her so quickly. Jenny's a light in the darkness - as cliched as that sounds - and Ianto has seen plenty of darkness in his life; light is a nice change, to say the least. Of course, he was happy with Jack, but Jack was never anywhere near as bright and excited and exuberant as Jenny is. Ianto basks in her joyful glow, only ceasing to gaze at her when she finishes off the cone and smiles up at him, a dab of ice cream going unnoticed on the tip of her nose. "Where to now?" she asks him. "We've still got about half an hour to kill."

Ianto almost laughs, reaching up and tapping his own nose with a finger. "Jenny, you've, er...you've got some ice cream..."

"Oh, have I?" Jenny takes a napkin from the holder and wipes it off. Then she grins, which turns into a spirited giggle that she seems unable to stop, and soon Ianto has joined in, laughing with her and asking the universe where this wonderful girl who makes every day so _enjoyable _has been up until a week ago.

After a short time, their laughter dissolves into silence, but not the uncomfortable kind; it's companionable, contented. Not the kind where neither party can find words to fill it, but the kind where they don't _need _to. Jenny and Ianto sit at their table a little longer, allowing Ianto time to finish the last of _his _ice cream, before getting up and heading off, back in the general direction of the Plass because it's getting close to the end of lunch, but prepared to stop anywhere that takes their fancy.

They buy coffees from a little roadside vendor and hover near it while they drink them, chatting away about films - turns out Jenny's never seen one, and Ianto has made plans in his head to take her to the movies in a flash - until Jenny takes her fourth sip of coffee and screws her dainty little nose up at it. "This isn't nearly as good as yours," she remarks, and Ianto can tell she's not just being nice, she's totally honest.

He gives her a smile. "Well, not everyone's born with the gift," he says jokingly, and she grins at him. And then her grin turns to a thoughtful frown and she pauses, her expression odd. One Ianto's never seen her with before. He begins to worry a little.

"Ianto..." Jenny begins, not quite looking him in the eye, but then they're interrupted as a pair of large hands clamp each of their shoulders - Ianto's right, Jenny's left - gently but firmly. Startled, both look up into the face of the man to whom the hands belong, and he looks back at them, mouth twisting into the kind of smile that one would generally find on a cartoon shark that's cornered a pair of goldfish. Ianto gives the man a sheepish, guilty, caught-with-a-hand-in-the-cookie-jar glance in reply to this smile, whereas Jenny's gaze turns, puzzled and slightly upset, to the woman standing a short distance from them. Gwen's face is deeply apologetic.

"What have we here?" Jack asks the pair, slyly.

_To be continued._


End file.
